Opinions on Circular Polarisers What Brand / Type is best?

[TonyH]

Hello All,

I'm new to this forum, but from what I've read so far it seems quite friendly and very well informed, hands on experience and sound advice....

I've been shooting film for quite a long time and made the jump to digital about 18 months ago with a Fuji s7000 and recently the addiion of a Nikon D70. Obviously there are considerable differences and many similarities between the 2 formats (film and digital) which I am still coming to grips with and enjoying very much.

This leads me to my question.... I'm looking to buy a polarising filter for my walk around lens 18-70dx and have seen a number of different brands and models on sale at varying prices around the place.

I'd be interested to hear what other members are using and opinions on effectiveness and value for money for their filter brand. I know we can manipulate in ps but I do believe in doing as much in camera to get the image the way I want as possible.

All input appreciated.

[gMaster]

Welcome,
I'm currently using Hoya HMC 67mm CP, its not that expensive and pretty good. The only problem is if you stack that with a another filter i.e UV, at 18mm you get very bad vignetting on the 4 corners.

[edneeves]

I use a basic Hoya Circular Polariser on my kit lens (Circular is mandatory on the D70 I believe), and its by far the best addition I have made to my kit.

Ed.

[big pix]

(Circular is mandatory on the D70 I believe)
Ed.

It is mandatory because of the auto focus len's....... and yes a top investment.....Hoya is a good brand......

gMaster.....the bad vignetting you are getting at 18mm comes from the thickness of the 2 filters together, try just one filter at a time......

and tony welcome to the forum......keep an eye on the Brisbane/Gold Coast section.......

[PiroStitch]

I use the Hoya CPL as well...and I'm too lazy to take the UV filter off so I just stack it on Sometimes the vignetting can be used creatively, but not most of the time.

[krpolak]

Since I used primes not without reasons one of my concerns is image quality which besides other characteristics also means sharpness. I hate take a good shot and then find that it looks soft on larger print. Therefore when buying cpl I loooked only into two brands B+W and Heliopan. Finaly purchased the second one, SH-PMC version (16 coatings), exclusively imported for me by dvdreamtime.com (no official distributor in Australia). I paid 165 $AU. At the same time Hoya PRO version was 175 $AU. Why Heliopan?

1. Quality of glass. Only these two German brands, as far as I know, cuts glass from core cylinder rather then like others from glass sheet. B+W uses Schneider factory, where as Heliopan Schotch, which is also glass provider fot Zeiss.

2. Quality of coatings. I heard that even Hoya Pro version suffers easly from scratching coating (in fact matting ) by cleaning fabric/tissue after while. What???!

3. Build quality. Both German brand uses brass instead of aluminium, which easier stacks on lens.

4. Also Heliopan has nice feature: rotating a ring becomes a bit blocked when comes to extreme polarizing position. I give you extra idea how much you polarize your image. There is also scale for the same reason.

As far as I had noticed there is not difference in image sharness between clean lens and lens with Heliopan CPL, a least I cannon see it on my 6Mp.

Colour looks natural. Filter catches a touch more flare then clean lens, which I recon is good result.

The only question is: do you need top class glass for your 18-70dx lens? On the other hand, will difference of few buck stop you to get over images degradation which cheap CPL?

Regards,

K.Polak

[Sheetshooter]

Kristian's advice is as good as you will ever get - go for the very best coating you can get and if that means a brass mount then all the better.

I doubt that you would be disappointed by most major brands but I always favour the better coated filters (and I have hundreds of the bloody things for all the varying sizes I use from 40.5mm diameter to 135mm diameter.

There are some Polarisers which also add about an 81A worth of warmth and these can be a good thing also if you still use film where colour correction is less manageable after the event.

Cheers,

[TonyH]

That's all great advice.

I have a number of Primes and Zooms which my existing filters cover but non in 67mm.

Hopefully the cpl will fix some of the issues that I have encountered with this lens. I believe the lens is good as there is much photographic evidence out there on the net to show its quality and limitations. However it appears as though (and is backed up here) a cpl really is essential kit for this lens.

The problem I was having was that Hoya (Green) is the most predominant cpl filter in the marketplace with a few brands I've not heard of before. I have never rated the Green series as a quality product.

With my gear I always try to get the best the budget will allow and have always thought that there's not much good having good glass and a crappy filter in front of it.

Again thanks for all the input..... Tony

[Sheetshooter]

I should have mentioned that for filter users working with wide-angles and wide zooms there are two options to keep in mind regarding vignetting:

1. Some manufactureres such as Heliopan (and some Hoya Pro-Line) supply filters in thinner mounts which do not protrude as far, although this might not be possible with Polarisers where there must essentially be two rings - one rotating within the other.

2. Use filters a size or two larger with a step-up ring. For example, if you have a tele-lens whicgh uses 77mm size filters you can use these on a wide zoom needing 67mm filters with the use of a step-up ring from 67 to 77. I know that Vanbar in Melbourne and Sydney carry a stock of these at all times.

[krpolak]

Sheetshooter

1. Some manufactureres such as Heliopan (and some Hoya Pro-Line) supply filters in thinner mounts which do not protrude as far, although this might not be possible with Polarisers where there must essentially be two rings - one rotating within the other.

Heliopan provides slim version for cpl (B+W also). But it doesnt have front thread. Regarding to vineting I didnt notice any on 20mm (35) focal length.

Use filters a size or two larger with a step-up ring.

There is also other solution which I prefer - collect lenses with the same diameter. I stick 52mm and is not too bad. This obviously needs a think about whole system and is not always possible when particular models are required. Anyway, this is rather advice for Nikon starters

Regards,

K.Polak

[birddog114]

Hoya, B&W or other have some CPL filters in pro range thin, some with double side threaded, other may have single side threaded and they're expensive.
I use them with my Nikkor 12-24, wide 12mm without vignetting.

[krpolak]

One more note about quality.

http://www.stopa.cso.pl/technika/filterek/bezfiltra.jpg

http://www.stopa.cso.pl/technika/filterek/zfiltrem.jpg

This is example taken from Arkadiusz Stopa website http://www.stopa.cso.pl

First one is a crop taken without cpl, second one with Hama 725 (cheap one). Regarding to author, technical data: Pancolar 1,8/50 mm, film Fujichrome Astia 100, F 5.6, scanned with Leafscan 45 at 2500 dpi.

This example agrees with my experience with cheap filters.

Regards,

K.Polak